Sidebar: I apologize for the tardiness of this post. My granddaughter was Puck in a high school production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (She was AWESOME!!!) and frankly that was much more important than anything I could possibly create.
When George A. Romero created the modern zombie movie in 1968, he did so knowing full well that it would be a huge success and create a genre that was just as hard to kill as the reanimated humans populating the film.
Or not.
The truth is neither he nor anyone involved with the film could know just how resilient this new genre and monster would be. They just wanted to make a movie that would generate a return on their investment.
But “Night of The Living Dead” 1968 was a huge hit and did create a monster and a genre.
Today we look at two very different zombie movies.
Lucio Fulci’s “Zombie” 1979 was made as an unofficial sequel to “Dawn of The Dead” 1978. Mr. Romero had made a deal with Dario Argento and his brother Claudio: The Argento brothers provided a large pile of cash to make Dawn. In return they got the rights to the film everywhere except the US and Japan. (This is my understanding. If I’m wrong please correct me.) Because of this Dawn of the Dead was known as Zombie in most foreign markets.
The film’s monumental success is an important part of horror film history.
Lucio Fulci had been directing movies since 1959. Like most Italian filmmakers, he dabbled in many different film genres. Prior to Zombie, he was primarily know for romantic sex comedies and Giallo. He had made quite a name for himself in both.
When Zombie (AKA Dawn of the Dead) hit big worldwide Italian film production companies did what they always do: Rush to imitate the financial success in the cheapest possible way. Not Mr. Fulci. His prior productions differed from most genre films in that the level of film production quality overall might not have been up to Hollywood standards, but they towered over the other Italian genre films at the time.
This isn’t to say Mr. Fulci didn’t rush a copycat movie into production. He certainly did. Zombie, AKA Dawn of the Dead was released in 1978. Mr. Fulci’s Zombie (AKA Zombie 2 in foreign markets) was released in 1979.
I had the great good fortune to see Mr. Fulci’s Zombie in the theater when it was first released. It was a horrifying experience. It was MUCH more graphic and violent than anything Mr. Romero had produced up to that point. Another personal note is that, at that time, I hadn’t seen Dawn of The Dead as it was just too intimidating. It would be sometime in the 80’s before I’d have the courage to see it.
Zombie takes place almost entirely on a remote island. It features some astounding sequences. (No spoilers here, as this is an important enough entry in the zombie genre, that if you’re a fan, you’ve already seen it or should see it at your earliest opportunity.) It’s an exciting, scary, and intensely gory experience. Mr. Fulci knows how to make an effective horror film and this is easily one of his best.
The bottom line is this is a fantastic entry into the zombie genre, possibly one of the top five movies in that genre, depending on your particular tastes and sensibilities.
Let’s get one thing out of the way: I love this movie and don’t have the maturity to be in any was objective about it. It hits all the notes I care about in films in general and in zombie movie’s in particular. Tina Romero is the daughter of George A. Romero and there’s a part of me that delights in the conceit that Mr. Romero is in movie heaven, sitting next to Mario Bava, Alfred Hitchcock, and William Castle with a huge grin on his face saying “Did you see what my little girl did! Did you see it! She made the zombie movie I could never make and she knocked that fucking thing out of the park!” Just the idea of that tableau fills my heart with joy.
Sure, you could say this is a love letter to her dad, but it’s so much more than that. Queens of the dead is basically Night of The Living dead set in the bigger than big, louder than loud world of drag queens. And it milks that for everything it’s worth. Ms. Romero has the same sensibilities of her father, the same innate understanding of the genre, and the same wicked sense of humor all dialed up to eleven.
Again, I’m not getting to particulars because if you love zombie movies you must see this movie. I regret that I missed seeing it in the theater because that would have been a magical experience.
Apologies for the amazing lack of insightful commentary on these two movies, but the simple truth is that better writers than me have already created great commentaries on both films and they are a search prompt away. My only goal here is to identify these two films and very important cornerstones. Zombie is an essential film in the historical zombie genre and Queens is the amazing next step, showing us just how far you can take the genre without breaking any of the arcane rules. Queens represents the brightest possible future for the genre.
Don’t know what comes next in this series but it WILL come tomorrow.
See you then.
